Just for fun b/c it is going to be so ....

dang hot and humid today... Here is some comparison shots of the flower gardens.

The East garden --> East side of the house.

This is the path through the East Garden. 
On the left side of the path, I have so 

many perennials. 

Blazing Stars come in 

after the daffodils, tulips, and 

iris plants.👇

I used broken bits of concrete pavers to make
my own path. This year I laid down cardboard
and then layered the mulch over the cardboard.
It worked pretty well this year!

This is how it looked in the beginning of May.

 

The Porch area... now...

and earlier this year....

The back step...

What greets you when you park at our house right now....

I have more gardens. They are considered my wild-ish gardens. I plant the seeds in mass -- I use a coffee can full of mixed seeds I collected from last year and dump in the dirt. I rake it and stomp it into the ground.
I do weed it until it is knee high and then I let the plants do what they want.

I simply mow around them and admire the colors and the amount of bees, birds, and other insects that are busy with the plants.

I guess I did this post because late in February next year if I am still on this Earth, I can look back and see how pretty the gardens were this summer.

Then I can plan to do something different for next year. I do have to say though, having pumpkin plants near the house has actually been quite fun. They really attract the bees and it is exciting to watch the pumpkins grow and guess what they will look like.

August is a time of change and at least for me it is a time to put up produce. The past few days I've been freezing veggies for this winter. Thankfully, there are enough produce markets around for me to pick up as much as I want. I haven't had time to do a vegetable garden for the past few years but still manage to freeze or dehydrate all of our veggies for the next several months.

Have a grand day...

The Flowers last hurrahs!

The cosmos and the Morning Glories out on the Wagon Wheel far from the house are having a majestic display right now.

I find that interesting as I haven't watered these plants in ages, only enough to get them started!

However I planted them near the leach field so I think they are flourishing on the moisture in that soil?

 

I have a riot of colors and the vines have grown onto the Orange Cosmos and dead Bachelor's Buttons that are still standing.

The 4 o'clocks are producing seeds like crazy right now. I take a bucket and shake their little black seeds right into the bucket for collection.

These flowers open in the evening with a heavenly scent. The hummingbirds love them. I have white, yellow, pink and this bright color. They close after the morning sun hits them and sometimes on a cloudy day, they will stay open most of the day.

I have Orange Cosmos, and a few bicolored cosmos flowers which are giving up their last hurrahs also. However, I finally figured out how to collect their seeds so I will have a huge mass of them next year!

The bees are still busy on the open blossoms. These flowers will blossom until the first frost.

The Nasturtiums make me smile as their vines creep onto the porch. I turn them so they don't crawl up to the door. Their blossoms are never ending and the leaves and blossoms are a tasty treat to just munch on or add to salads.

I even stuck a sweet potato in the ground that was sprouting [a store purchase]. It has the most beautiful purple leaves! I think I'll use some next year to add interest to my planters, they have a gorgeous color.

The coleus plants are all in buckets so I can move them easily. The one below with the sign marks Morris's place of rest between the pines.

I just thought it would be fun to have lights across these brightly colored plants now that the days are shorter.

This fake spider has resided in my succulent pie pan for ages. Kids get a great kick out of it and the little tiny hedgehogs that are placed around the plants.

I like fun critters in my garden...Oh!
Not the horse or mules though!

Now you can see how close to the house they are.  We love it that way. 

Here is the pallet garden and the shaded wildflower garden in the side yard. Messy looking, but full of beauty.
Next year the pallet garden will go all the way to the house so I don't have to mow that tiny square between the LP tank and the house.

Hopefully, this was not too much to bear in photos. But this is what keeps me hopping all year long. In the summer I tend the plants and in the winter I plan the plantings!

I have a lot of perennials to split and move, but I will have to wait until we actually get rain to dig in the rock hard ground.

I'm going to lay a tarp out on another section of the old veggie garden and mix it with flowers and perhaps some veggies next year. It will have to be small enough so I can weed it and hand cultivate it as I cannot run a tiller.

Enjoy these days with your flowers and take lots of photos to take you through the winter!

My Garden Piggy! She is

always so Happy!

Seeding Frenzy

It is time for the annual planting frenzy.

This is part of the porch edge.

To those who like things in an orderly way, my gardening skills will offend.

The Ajuga aka Bugleweed, once covered most of this area. However, a winter with hardly any snow a couple of years ago demolished most of them. The rabbits, moles, and voles didn't help either. Last year I planted Nasturtiums in the bare spots.

The Nasturtiums are going to be back this year on the edges while  Forget Me Nots will be in the bare spots right next to the porch.

The Forget Me Nots aren't tall and won't overshadow the Ajuga allowing them to once again fill in the bare areas.

This is were the oriole and the hummingbird feeders are. We can eat our meals and watch the antics right outside the window.
Nasturtiums will come up through the mulch under the feeders to add color.

Hubby asked me why I didn't make straight borders. I replied
"Nature doesn't make her borders straight."

I may expand this a little next year depending on my moods...

I had to put up a temporary 'fence' made out of baling twine and spikes to keep Charlie out of the bare spots. He loves laying in the dirt in between plants.

He is staying out of the area now that I added mulch.

When he wants to stay outside and just observe the yard, he is attached to a boat anchor by a long light cable.

He can lay in the sunlight or chose to be on the bench in the porch. That is his outdoor furry pad. He dragged his blanket out on the porch so I tossed it on the bench.

This area is his preferred way of spending the warm months.

The east side is waiting patiently for the zinnias and 4 o'clock seeds to be dropped into the soil.

The west side where the pallet garden was last year, will get a mix of all sorts of seeds. We'll see what happens there. I had to wait until after the mini split is installed to do any more work.

I have a couple of other spots that I'm going to put wildflowers and other seeds in. This year, I will have to be patient for the annuals to color the area. I'm good with that.

Sunflowers, cosmos, and even [fingers crossed] some morning glories.

In the mule paddock near the house, I'm going to experiment with some sweet corn and squash. When the plants are done, I'll take down the single hot wire and let the critters clean 'the garden'. I don't know if it will work out well, but I am willing to try.

I've transplanted bee balm into three different places. I hope all the spots bring in the birds and hummingbird moths.

For giggles, I even planted sunflowers in one of the old cattle feeders. That should be interesting to say the least.

I only have to grab a couple of tomato plants to put in my rather unusual 'found' planters. More about them at another time.

Seed On!

And enjoy...

Just stuff.

So here is a quick couple of shots of the new part of my flower garden and it is coming into its full beauty right now.

There is the sleeping dragon 

looking quite content...

....and a stink bug resting in the

early morning on a

sunflower

Charlie and I took a long hike on Sunday and lo and behold! We found the lost Teddy Bear at the snowmobile crossing that had washed out!

This bear washed downstream and avoided tangles until it was forced into a narrow area and got hung up in roots!

Success! All toys recovered from the flash flood!

Last night I couldn't sleep so instead I went to see if I could capture the comet everyone is talking about. I'd failed before more than once. I'm still experimenting with night shots.

Here is the one half decent shot I did get before clouds moved in on the horizon.

The photo was done in with the infrared camera which is supposed to be able to pick up more light when used without filters.

I didn't use a great lens for this, as it was an experiment. But I am satisfied that I did get a photo of the historic event.

I may try again. This was taken in the mules pasture.

Then I went for the other camera with the nice wide angle lens and fast aperture.

Yippee! I sort of did it!

The milky way with clouds moving in.

If I take a nap today after gardening, I can try this again tomorrow night.

I felt happier that I was near the mules while taking some of these shots. 

The coyotes were having a field day howling and yipping through the woods below me!

I may sit down and do some studying or watch an Olympus Tutorial on shooting this in better preparation for trying this again.

Well, off I go to another day of gardening and other fun things.

I need some fresh potatoes and fruit. 

I'm really beginning to dread going into stores.

Have a wonderful day.

Stay safe.

Possibilities

There is something about that first light as the sun comes over the trees on the ridge.

Everything seems possible in the break of a beautiful dawn. The fog is mysterious, the grasses seem brighter and the world feels like it is full of possibilities.

The day goes on business as the new unusual, or the new normal as they are now saying.

I work on the east flower garden that started out rather drab in April.

Some dirt from the Big Pile and some rocks from another old garden...

a bit of tender loving care...

and a lot of patience...

The possibilities are there!

Our vegetable garden had a very rough start along with frosts and heavy rains, cold weather suddenly turned hot.

But the carrots and corn seem to be thriving. The lettuce and beans are starting to come around!

By August I'll be busy freezing and dehydrating vegetables for this winter through to next August.

I tire of the sameness each day. So I have been bicycling and today I'm meeting a friend. We will bicycle KVR together. I haven't seen her since Good Friday. 

Our thoughts on this political environment are different. She believes the virus is not a big deal. She told me she refuses to wear a mask as it is against her rights as a free person. Yet for her work, she wears a mask.

I feel that bicycling and chatting on the side of a trail in 8,000 acres of wild lands is probably just fine. I'm not going to change her beliefs. She is a kind person and a thoughtful person and that is the person I knew first. 

We met in CrossFit [yes, that is another hot topic!] and I've genuinely enjoyed her friendship.

I have the opportunity to continue a good friendship so I will. 

After all, look at our situation. For the past 3 years Rich has been pretty much an inactive person. This year he has taken an interest in mowing again. 

His health has not suddenly improved and he is not as depressed as he has been for such a long time. 

Yesterday he even walked down to the garden to do an inspection.

See?

Possibilities!

I have a mission this summer. To get him on one of his mules and take a short ride.

This day is good, so I am going to grab onto it and hold it tight.

Thank goodness for the things that could be.